Take a trip through history with former teacher

Tuesday

Jul 23, 2013 at 2:38 PM

Robin Triplett combines history, humor

By Phil FuhrerPhil.Fuhrer@StarNewsOnline.com

When she’s not doing guided walking tours of downtown Wilmington or nearby Oakdale Cemetery, Robin Triplett is still liable to show up at either place on her day off.Of course, in those instances she would be walking with her loyal sidekick Rusty, an 11-year-old, floppy-eared bloodhound who howls for dear life if Triplett appears to be moving away from him.“Now if I could just get a man to howl like that if I start to walk away, I guess I wouldn’t be single, would I,” laughs Triplett, a lifelong Wilmingtonian who is just getting warmed up talking about her own history, which recently included 30 years as a teacher at New Hanover High School.“I taught all the grades, nine through 12, and all the kids wanted to be in my classes,” says Triplett, 58. “The principal called me in one day and asked why so many students wanted to be with me. It was because of all the field trips I would take, at least once a week. The county loved it; didn’t cost them a thing. My class could just pick up and walk downtown, or to Oakdale, and I would lead the way while teaching the students local history. “Of course, the boys at the back of the line loved it: They could grab a smoke, or kiss a girl, and I wouldn’t know it. “There’s no free ride today, not since Triplett started her retirement gig, Trip with Triplett. Her website lists the price ranges for groups or individuals, whether that would be 72 Boy Scouts on one downtown tour, or a birthday party she ran for a sixth-grader at Oakdale, or just a couple of honeymooners who were allowed to kiss.“I’m even starting to do bus trips so that I can accommodate folks from nursing homes,” says Triplett. “I’ve already got three scheduled.”Whether you tour by foot, or bus, or schedule Triplett to bring her history and histrionics to your office or organization, as she did recently at PPD, you can count on at least a couple of jaw-dropping remembrances of Wilmington past. “At the cemetery I show the grave of the girl buried in the keg of whiskey and the man buried with his dog,” touts Triplett. “And, of course, the man who is buried alive.”She even has first-hand knowledge of some anecdotes. After all, she grew up in the Lansdowne neighborhood when it opened in the early 1960s, was in the first graduating class at Hoggard High School (“I was voted most talkative!”) and has lived in her Holly Tree neighborhood home the past three decades.Before she does her touring, she and Rusty settle into a morning ritual: A cup of McDonald’s coffee plus the morning paper on the porch. Then it’s time for business – a walk back in time.“I may be retired,” says Robin Triplett, “but I need money like everybody else.”The website: www.tripwithtriplett.webs.com.